Microsoft's reputation falls

Drops out of the dirty dozen into the terrible teens

Microsoft's business reputation has fallen to 16th over the last year.

The outfit was ranked as number seven last year.

Google had the best reputation followed by Johnson & Johnson, 3M, Berkshire Hathaway, Apple, Intel, Kraft Foods, Amazon.com, General Mills and Disney.

The figures were compiled by a survey of 30,104 people by brand consultant Harris Interactive.

Vole still has a high score but did not show up in many of the "Top Five" lists that Harris Interactive provided.

Harris had break out sections such as perceived social responsibility, emotional appeal, product quality, financial performance, workplace environment, and vision and leadership.

We guess that it means that someone can be the top of a narrow list.

People had the highest trust in Amazon. More than 45 percent of respondents said they'd trust the company in the event of a product or service problem.

Vole's corporate communications ranked seventh for both easy recognition and consistency, and ranked sixth in terms of correct and accurate information. Microsoft didn't make the top 10 list for products that have a common look and feel.

The most distrusted company is Goldman Sex. BP received the most negative customer-service ratings, followed by Goldman Sachs and other banking companies. Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs and BP shared the top two spots for unethical standards.

Microsoft was not among companies for which at least half of respondents said they would buy or recommend a product. Amazon was the winner there.